To not use the little fruit and veg bags

[ObiJuanKenobi]

...at the super market that they provide at the end of the aisle?

DP has only just noticed I don't use them which he thinks is really weird.
I just think it's a waste of plastic if you wash your fruit and veg anyway.

Am I the only one?

Battleax I am going to be at the supermarket as soon as it opens tomorrow to see how this all works in practice.

If we see a woman filling her bra with fresh produce, we'll have unmasked you sparkling

That will be me, my cleavage full of potatoes.

I used to work on and supervise the checkouts at a Waitrose and it wouldn't have caused any issues there the checkouts have weighing scales built in but hey ho!

I just reuse the little plastic bags until they die, put the corpses in the carrier bag recycling and start again. Or I should say did - those net bags are brilliant!

Oh god this is some kind of peak MN. Someone's casting aspersions on my claims about local Waitrose weighing procedures 😂

Come and look for yourself OP. I'll stand you cake and a coffee 😊

But you have to get the stuff to the cashier's weighing scales somehow. Hence the bags.

All the Waitrose I have ever been in have small bags/ customer scales with printable price stickers.

They don't grow them in dogshit I believe horse shit is preferred. Manure is an excellent fertiliser.

Shrink-wrapped broccoli are my pet hate. What a waste of packaging. They always have some loose broccoli for sale along side so I choose that.

Maybe it's not a big deal here in the UK because raw meat is packaged so it doesn't leak but in the US it's not like that.

I worked briefly as a cashier at a supermarket in the US and there was meat constantly leaking blood and goo all over the belt and not always time to clean it up. I don't care how well fruit can be washed not using those bags was never an option there, here I probably just do it out of habit.

I use net bags from a local farm shop - such a massive overuse of plastic.

I've never understood the two options for broccoli, the wrapped one is 4p more per KG though.

Yes all Waitrose stores have the bags and scales with the stickers, they're useful for quick check but they are not mandatory.

@Leigha3 how is raw meat packaged in the US?!

For those saying they don't understand how it works:
You put how ever many apples / oranges / pears / potatoes in your trolley, loose
When you get to the checkout you put them on the conveyor belt, also loose (keep the different types roughly together)
The cashier gathers up and weighs each group and puts them in your (reusable) bag which you hold out for them. If you're busy packing something else they leave you to do it
It takes roughly 10 seconds longer than if your stuff was in a plastic bag
For really small stuff (cherries, new potatoes, sprouts etc) yes you'll need a little bag. You just don't need one for most things
It doesn't matter what supermarket you are in. They won't care. Occasionally the cashier will ask if you want them to put it all in little bags. You just say no thank you (and wonder why on earth they are asking since you obviously chose not to use the bags...)
All fruit and veg should be washed anyway - it's been on tractors and in trucks and been touched, squeezed, sneezed on by god knows who. A few minutes touching a trolley isn't going to make a difference to how gross they already are

Doesn't really work with scan & shop though does it??

I'll stick with plastic bags cheers - just like everyone else I've ever seen.....

@PiffleandWiffle no ones said you should change your ways, the post was asking if anyone else does/doesn't use them.

Banning plastic bags will probably be the only effective option. People get set in their ways. Paper bags would be much better, although I'm sure there would be some complaints about juice leaking through the paper or something.

Putting stuff on the conveyor belt loose, and holding bags open? The cashiers must love that. And the queue behind. Especially if there was a lot of fruit and veg. What a huge performance.

I am with you Piffle.

@afrikat you've explained it perfectly.

Why do 2 oranges need their own bag? You peel them anyway.

As for the killer disease spread by shopping trolley, does no one wash fruit or boil/oven veg anymore?

I never use small bags.

Cashiers picks up, weighs, rolls down the conveyor and they go straight into my shopping bags.

I can't get my head round extra bags around meat, it's already inside one packet.

I am going to be watching out for all of this tomorrow. I can't wait to see my first mesh bag or all the stuff rolling about on the conveyor.

More availability of paper bags in the shops would definitely be beneficial for everyone, self scanners included.

A lot of fruit and veg would be way too heavy for paper bags.

😂 😂 😂 stuff rolling about, it just sits on the conveyor then rolls down to be bagged.

I can't believe you have never seen this.

How odd, I’m reading this thread and news about plastic packaging being changed into recyclable by 2023 comes on.
I do use them, but now wondering whether I should buy bunch of wash bags for loose vegetables. Although in Lidl most of them are already in plastic bags, so they wouldn’t be used that much.
Would it be weird if I brought my own plastic container to put bread rolls and similar in?

I would never waste a bag for big items - bananas, broccoli, cauli, sweet potatoes etc.

I can't imagine gathering up my 8 apples and six plums and sprouts and putting them loose in the trolley and on the checkout though. I can only imagine the look the checkout staff would give too.